t'shard to say why Grand Theft Auto is so much fun to play, since manypeople seem to get bored with it quickly. The simplicity of thegameplay might be one factor: You spend most of your time driving alittle car through city streets, collecting points for committingcrimes. It might sound like a good time initially, but for how long?For many, the answer will be "not very long."

So what type ofgamer will enjoy GTA? Let's reflect on your childhood for the answer.First, did you like Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars a lot when you were akid? Second, did you spend most of your time ramming the aforementionedtoy cars into one another and lighting them on fire?If you answered"yes" to these questions, there's a good chance you'll enjoy .

Butenough psychoanalysis. Sure, it's fun to cruise around the cities inGTA, running over innocent pedestrians and hijacking cars, then usingthem to crash into others for points. But your real purpose in the gameis trying to get noticed by the local crime syndicate. To do that, youmust successfully complete jobs for big points. Get enough points, andyou'll advance to the next level and go on to other cities and biggerjobs. The more successful you are, the more difficult the jobs get.Some will be in multiple parts; others will have a time limit. And justbecause you work for the wrong side of the law doesn't mean you're safefrom harm. Blow up a car with a rocket launcher while standing tooclose, and you'll be a crispy criminal. The life of crime is dangerousand risky. Even if you don't get killed or severely hurt, the cops willbe after you all the time.

That's why patience is important. Youcan drive around recklessly all you want, but you'll constantly havethe cops on your tail, interfering with your assigned job and thepoints you'll need to get to the next level. The easiest way to get thecops after you is by running over people or crashing into a squad car,and, unless you're sadistic, you usually run over people accidentallybecause of reckless driving.

It can take as long as two hours toachieve one million points and proceed to the second level. Later on,you'll need three million, which can take as long as five to six hoursto achieve. This is somewhat frustrating because you can't save yourgame during levels. Since the game comes with a Windows 95 version youcan multitask, so you don't have to tie up your PC playing the game,but if your system crashes, you're out of luck.

GTA is fun, andit has some excellent features. Vehicles all have appropriate physics.They steer, brake, accelerate, and handle like you might expect. Sportscars can stop and turn on a dime, but aren't very durable (if your cartakes too much damage, it won't run properly and might even explode),while trucks have a large turning radius and take a long time to get upto speed, but are fairly durable. Small details - like the beepingsound a truck makes when it backs up, the various engine sounds, or theway pedestrians scream and run if you drive on the sidewalk - add toGTA's cool factor.

Once you get good at driving the cars,especially the fast sports cars, you can really zip through traffic. Onroadways, if you gently tap the turn buttons, you can change lanes toavoid traffic without compensating for recentering the car, since itdoes so for you automatically. That makes a big difference when you'respeeding down one of the multilane interstates. Another feature thatreally helps is how the perspective zooms in and out, determined byyour rate of speed - it zooms in when you're going slow and out whenyou're going fast to expand your field of vision. The only flaw withthis technique is that it doesn't always zoom in right away, so a tallbuilding can block the view of your car until it does.

GTA is agood game that is highly recommended at a bargain price, but won't winany awards. Wanna-be sociopaths who can deal with the shortcomings willhave a lot of fun, and if you could save games within levels, it wouldcome even more highly recommended.Download